Tender (1/1)
by Northlight
Summary: Jace and Victor, sex and like and love.


_ Title: Tender (1/1)  
Summary: Jace and Victor, sex and like and love.  
Rating: PG13 for very mild sexual situations.  
Disclaimer: Cameron and Eglee  
Date: March 15, 2001._

* * *

A hot puff of breath against her ear, "I wish I could give you more." 

She hadn't quite understood more, because this place, this time, Manticore, was everything she could ever need. But he was so earnest, such desire in his voice and words that she had wound her strong hands in his hair, drew his lips towards her own. "This is perfect," she told him. 

He moved slow, trailing nibbles and kisses down her throat. Vulernable areas were mapped in her mind. She tensed slightly, without his notice, as his mouth settled above her pulse. Jace murmured her appreciation and kept one eye trained on the clock, watching the steady march of the minute hand across its white face. Her ears strained, listening for the sound of approaching footsteps beyond the thunder of Victor's heartbeat, the rasp of his breath against her flesh. 

"You are so beatiful," he breathed. 

Of course, she could have said. Weren't they all? Was not perfection bred into their genes? Victor spoke the words as if they were something magical, awed, as if he held a dream in his arms. She left him his appreciation, left him his wonder at manufactured beauty that he had yet to see for what it was. 

She had done this before, when her body turned traitor and shook loose from all her hard earned control. She had felt scent and sound and sight go sharp and clear as thoughts turned hazy and distant, the animal edited into her taking control of the human form they had chosen for her to wear. Her surroundings had warped, twisted, and she had felt the tension humming in her family. Hard and fast and mindless until the animal inside of her quieted, curled back silent and still in her belly and slept. 

Victor had smiled at her, a quick, furtive twitch at the corner of his lips. She hadn't understood. Light even in the darkness to sensitive eyes, she had watched Laine's slim fingers twitch and weave in silent words. He likes you, Laine's graceful fingers informed. Jace's fingers turned clumsy with sudden surprise: likes me? She had lay on her back, dark grey blanket up to her shoulders, hands clasped against her stomach. Her mind had picked at the words, dissecting them for their meanings, and she hadn't understood. 

His fingers had brushed the back of her hand, and he had looked at her from the corner of his eye. And she had started to understand. Quick flicker smile, and warmth had spread through her. Soft and pleasant, and the animal she sometimes was was quiet, its sharp burn held close to itself. Jace smiled back one day, watched Victor's eyes widden in surprise. That was like, then, she had thought, pleased with her discovery. 

The medics had taught them, too. Small, silent figures, they had sat in precisely arranged rows. They had clasped their hands atop speckled grey desks, sat straight, heads up, eyes forward. Before them stood the picture perfect image of detached professionalism who delievered a cool voiced explanation of all it had been decided they needed to know. Rattled off facts about puberty, masturbation, birth control, sex, abortion, rape, stuffed them full of information about what to expect, what to do, what not to. There hadn't been anything there about like in that crisp recitation. 

Sticky fingers gripped her hips, barely felt pressure urging her to follow his lead. She arched, watched emotions stutter across his face before he groaned and shuddered against her. Victor's moist face lay in the curve of neck and shoulder, rapid breath fluttering hotly against Jace's skin. 

He lifted his head, sudden concern, and spoke her name. 

She shook her head, jutted her chin forward towards the clock at Victor's back. He turned his head, winced at the time. He stepped away, left cool air against her flesh. She heard the rustle of clothes against skin as Victor hurridely put himself back together. "I'll see you later?" he asked and Jace smiled and nodded. He brushed a kiss against her lips before he left. 

Mexico, laying on an angled bed, her legs held open, her head thrown back. She puffed through gritted teeth, fingers twisting at bedding. Broke long enough to let out a cry and heard her baby's protesting wail. 

Jace lay, her baby against her stomach, fingers tracing the unmarked flesh of Max's neck. Realized that they hadn't been told anything about love, either. She'd had to figure that one out on her own. 

~end~ 


End file.
